We conclude the opening book of the Torah, Genesis. This portion focuses on the life of Jacob in Egypt with his beloved son Joseph. Yet, in a touch moment of blessing, Jacob blesses and adopts the sons of Joseph in order to give them, and Joseph himself, a future hope. Then Joseph, as the day of his death approaches, uses a phrase that will appear in the calling of Moses, and, according to Rashi, serves as a code word of sorts to the elders of Israel. What does it mean when God “attends to”? What is being signaled by this phrase? We will consider this, and much more, in this episode of Messiah in Life.
Jacob has lived in Egypt for seventeen years, and the Lord was with him. As his days become few, he begins to speak into the lives of his sons. The Torah says:
“Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come” (Gen. 49:1).
The words translated above, “in days to come,” means, “in the last days.” There is a rabbinic teaching that says the Lord showed Jacob all that would befall his sons, and how He would fulfill His covenant with Israel. Jacob desired to share this, but was restrained. He shared what he could see in part, but not in full (1 Cor. 13.9-10).
What did Jacob, this limping prophet, accomplish by sharing in part? In Genesis 48 we find Jacob blessing Joseph by demonstrating the “spirit of adoption” (Ro. 8:15). Manasseh and Ephraim were not sons of Jacob, but through the spirit of adoption, they became as his sons, equal to Joseph’s brothers. And by this adoption, Jacob set the fruitfulness (Ephraim) over the forgetfulness (Manasseh). Granting them rights of inheritance in the Promised Land.
But what of Jacob’s sons? The words found in Genesis 49 are prophetic, they are part of the whole. Jacob knew the deep valleys his family would traverse, but to share the fullness of that may leave them hopeless. So the Lord, by His grace, spoke through Jacob in part. And what was the end result?
They have a future.
At times we become so caught up in finding the meaning of a prophetic text, that we miss the obvious: there is a future.
While they are away from the Promised Land, under the protective covering of Joseph, it may seem that Israel’s end is in Egypt. No. As Jacob saw, Israel’s end is with God, but not lost among the nations, but with the nations before the Throne and the Lamb (Rev. 7:9).
Jacob’s words, as opaque as they are, relay life, hope, and covenant fulfillment. As Jacob prepares to rest, he prepares his sons for life without him, while safely in the care of the covenant Lord.
How deep and dark the valleys of life can be (Ps. 23:4)? But what is the promise attached to Psalm 23:4? “I will fear no evil. For You, the Lord, are with me.” You, Lord are with us: Emmanuel.
At times it can see that we are lingering in Egypt, a foreign land, separated from the promises of God. But in those times, we need to remember that, as with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we, as they, may graduate “in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (Heb. 11:13). If this be our end, is He unfaithful? Heaven forbid! We are caught up in a greater promise, and a greater end.
This limping prophet, Jacob, died in a foreign land, but rested in the promise as he spoke God’s promises into his son’s lives. And as Joseph himself would prophesy at the end of His life, “Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here” (Gen. 50:25).
“God will surely visit you,” and take you from this land, as He promised Abraham (Gen. 15), and when He does, take me with you. Did they? Yes: “As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph” (Josh. 24:32).
This limping prophet spoke life when life was far from perfect. All of us who have done some God wrestling limp after He touches us. What do we do with the limp? We rely on Him, and speak life into others. The slowness of the walk and the reliance on His Word causes us to see life, past, present and future, differently. We see it in light of Him. The finish is yet ahead, but we speak life to those along the way to it.
Being a limping prophet isn’t disqualifying, as a matter of biblical fact: it is the sign of qualification in living relationship with Him. How then do we walk? Leaning on the everlasting arms of the Yeshua/Jesus, Who is with us “even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20), even as He was in Egypt with Jacob as he spoke of: “the last days.”
Luke 2:8-20 recounts the opening of heaven to shepherds “keeping watch over their flock by night.” Myriads of angels appearing above singing “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased” (Lk. 2:14). Responding to what they have received, they make their way to Bethlehem, and witness the miraculous. Having seen this sight they return to their flock “glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told to them” (Lk. 2:20).
If you or I were to write an account of the birth of the Savior of humanity, we would not set it in unflattering, and desperate surroundings. Born in temporary accommodations, as there was no room in the house, Yeshua/Jesus is laid in a feeding trough. Choirs of angels do not appear over the newborn Child, kings, religious and civil leaders did not come to greet Him, and the magi would arrive much later.
The newborn Lord appeared to the lowest: a teenaged couple, unnamed attendants, and to shepherds. Authors of the times would hesitate to include the detail of shepherds. They were socially ungraceful, smelly, and rough around the edges: yet, heaven announces the birth of the Son of God to these social outsiders.
In the classic Christmas hymn What Child is This, in the second verse we read: Why lies He in such mean estate, where ox and lamb are feeding? Good Christians fear, for sinners here the silent Word is pleading.
The phrase “mean estate” beautifully captures the scene, while it may seem strange to modern ears. This is an Old English manner of referring to the insulting, unflattering, uncomfortable circumstance that Messiah was born into:
He wasn’t born in a mansion, He would grow to build one.
He wasn’t born to kings or governors, He was born for them.
He was born among and for those who recognize their poverty, and their own “mean estate” in sin.
In Luke 2:10 the angel announces, “Do not be afraid! For behold, I proclaim Good News to you, which will be great joy to all the people.” “Do not be afraid,” why? When angels appear it was a terrifying event, but not here. How do the Gospel authors affirm this announcement of good news “to all the people”?
In Matthew 1:1-17, he gives an account of the forbearers of Yeshua, His genealogy. In doing so, he includes many of the great names in Israel’s history, and he traces Yeshua back to Abraham. He is clearly writing this account for Jewish ears. Yet, he includes the names of three women: 1) Tamar, who tricks her father in law in order to press her right; 2) Rahab, a wealthy prostitute in Jericho; and 3) Ruth, a faithful Moabitess, a people excluded from inclusion in Israel. While these women would have been known to Jewish audiences, Matthew is pointing to something.
In Luke 3:23-38, the physician and historian Luke includes a genealogical record of Yeshua as well, but unlike Matthew who traces Yeshua back to Abraham, and the calling of a chosen people, Luke traces Yeshua back to Adam, as Yeshua will be the second or final Adam as Paul teaches.
Matthew for the Jews is laying a missiological statement of the coming Messiah in fulfillment of Abrahamic promise, showing the catching up of the faithful from the nations as well – lowly women, in this instance. For Gentiles, Luke is showing that Messiah was not only born as the greater promised Son and Lamb for Abraham, but also as the Savior for all people as the final Adam.
Can you find yourself in any of these people? The faithful among Israel? Rejected or outcast women? A fallen sinful man? Then recognize that Messiah was born in that “mean estate” for you, for me, and for all people. He became as the lowly in order to reach the lowly, in order that in Him, the Savior – the Risen Lord – we might become overcomers seated with Him in heavenly places.
For those celebrating: Hag Molag Sameach. Merry Christmas.
the mountain mensch 